Ian Nagle excited to get career back on road with Leinster

Wearing a T-shirt, shorts and a transparent plastic bag over his head and face, the man shinned up the tree trunk until he reached the beehive. There, he lopped off the top before collecting the honey and scampering back down.

Ian Nagle sat quietly below, marvelling at the agility and bravery required to be a honey forager in the village of Ujung Said in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, an Indonesian province on the island of Borneo. The forests are flooded so the only access to the beehives is by handmade riverboats.

The audience for this ritual was more substantial than normal, swelled by four MBA students from Cambridge University and a girl doing a PHD in the business school. They were there as part of a global consulting project, which is a constituent of their course work.

Armed with a translator and two local guides, they lived in the village for a week and there they explored the possibility with their hosts of forming an association with other villages in the area to try to get their honey sold at a higher price.

A second week was spent in another village, Nanga Betung, where the inhabitants harvest what are known as False Illipe nuts from the trees in the forest. False Illipe nuts are crushed into an oil or butter to be used in either a cosmetic product or as a food source – in the latter case, for example, as a replacement for cocoa butter in chocolate.

At 6ft 7in and 18-stone, Nagle would have presented quite a curiosity for the villagers. They would have been oblivious to his rugby career, which will resume full-time next season with Leinster after something of a two-year hiatus from the professional game.

“I did stand out a bit,” the 27-year-old laughed. “They don’t really know what to do with it [the honey] yet. We were looking at a way that we could market it for them; get a little bit more money for them along the value chain. It was really interesting. How big an impact we’ll have I don’t know. They’re brilliant people and it was a great experience.”

Narrative

It’s been a fair old journey from Buttevant to Borneo; a tale with a sharp plot twist in what initially appears to be a traditional rugby narrative.

Cork-born, educated at Glenstal Abbey, Nagle represented Munster and Ireland at underage level before graduating to the provincial academy.

He made his senior debut in the red jersey in March 2010 and in November of that year was voted man of the match on a historic night for Munster rugby as they beat Australia at Thomond Park.

Having just turned 22, there was no immediate ceiling for his ambition, an assertion supported by his winning of a couple of caps for the Ireland Wolfhounds in January 2011. But fate was to decree otherwise.

A shoulder injury sustained in pre-season to the 2011-2012 campaign proved a precursor to a time of huge frustration – there was a brief silver lining when he was called to train with the full Ireland squad ahead of the 2012 Six Nations Championship – that culminated in shoulder surgery in November 2012.

A foot problem ensued. He couldn’t shake off niggles. He played just 29 times for Munster and in a bid to break the cycle of misery accepted a short-term contract with the Newcastle Falcons in February 2014. He managed just two appearances as injury and the club’s requirement to field English-qualified players held him back.

Munster wanted him back and there were contract offers from clubs in England, France and New Zealand.

Nagle indulged in a little soul-searching and realised that his body and mind required a break from rugby.

“The best way I can describe it is when you are enjoying rugby there is a certain amount of free adrenaline you get, if you’re excited about a game.

“Some games are bigger; bigger consequences and your adrenaline levels are higher again.

“When you are enjoying rugby there is always that baseline of excitement you get before a game or training session. I’d lost that a little bit towards the end. I knew that it wasn’t a permanent thing but I thought that if I could get away from the game for a little bit and just let the small little niggles I had heal up, then maybe that would come back.”

It took courage for a 25-year-old Nagle to decline contract offers and walk away from a sport that had consumed his life since his teenage days in the hope of some day being able to reignite the pilot light.

Bolthole

He turned to education as a bolthole from professional sport. Bolstered by an undergraduate degree in commerce from UCC, Nagle decided that he would try to pursue a one-year MBA in Cambridge University.

In June 2014 he travelled to North Carolina, staying with a friend and helping out on a consulting project.

In the three months in America he studied for the GMAT (graduate management admission test) to the MBA course. It assesses a person’s analytical, writing, quantitative, verbal, and reading skills in standard written English.

He returned to Ireland, took the exam, and just after Christmas decided to fulfil an ambition by travelling through South and Central America with a buddy; other friends caught up for various legs of the adventure.

In February 2015, he flew to London for an interview at Cambridge and a month later found out he’d been accepted.

Tricky period

“At that stage, things were a bit up in the air. It was a tricky period. I wasn’t 100 per cent sure what I was doing for the following year, whether I was going to go back into rugby or whether I would do the course.

“In all honesty, I didn’t really expect to get into the course. I thought it was a long-shot.”

Nagle had travelled to London Irish to speak with the club and also met with Dean Ryan at the Worcester Warriors. “Some of the offers I got were through guys who vouched for me. I didn’t approach Worcester. Donncha [O’Callaghan] had spoken to Dean and said this guy here might be looking for a contract.

“He put in a good word, which was really great of him. I went to Worcester and spoke to Dean. I had been to London Irish at that stage as well.”

He knew that he might never get another opportunity to go to Cambridge. In truth, he probably wasn’t ready for professional rugby at that point.

University reignited his passion for the sport. “ I was back playing rugby in its purest amateur sport and I was enveloped by the spirit and attitude of those around me.”

He played for Cambridge in the Varsity match last December and then signed a short-term contract with London Irish – he played four matches – just to satisfy himself that he still possessed the wherewithal to play the sport in a professional environment.

At that stage he was wrestling with the idea of resuming a career in professional rugby.

“I spoke to Leo [Cullen, Leinster coach] for the first time last September but there was no mention of doing anything; it was just seeing where I was at, what condition I was in. There certainly wasn’t any promise of anything or any offer of anything.

“Nothing was going to happen before the Varsity match; it was perhaps the only game that some of these clubs would have seen me play in the best part of two years. Nothing was really going to happen until after that game. I wanted to come back to Ireland and Leinster was really the club I wanted to go to above any other.”

He signed for the province in February and will report for pre-season on July 1st.

Fresh start

So why Leinster? “Anything I say as to why Leinster would sound like why not Munster. It was a two-stage process. The first decision was whether or not to stay with Munster and I made that decision when I left two years ago. The next stage would be where would be the best place to make a fresh start.

“Leinster ticks every box. It’s an Irish club, consistently competing for silverware. I would prefer to go there and mix it with the best to see how I would get on, rather than go to another club, where there might be more of a promise of game time or it might be easier to break into the squad but they are maybe not as competitive.

“The big attraction is being given an opportunity. It just seems like an exciting place to go to; there are so many young players coming through. I have huge respect for the fact that Leo is willing to give me this opportunity. That would be a big motivation for me to try and repay that trust.

“I could understand why there would be a hesitation to give me that go. There might be the idea that I was frequently injured or that to be fair when I was fit I wasn’t setting the world alight. I have to prove myself. That’s the thing about joining a new squad; you need to earn respect first and foremost.

“The first goal I want to do is work as hard as I can in pre-season and try to earn the respect of the players and coaches, prove that I can come back, that I deserve a second chance.”

Nagle's maintained a good relationship with Munster coach Anthony Foley and CEO Garrett Fitzgerald.

“Both of them have always been straight and honest with me. I have held communication with them over the past year, kept them in the loop in my decision-making. When I told them I was going to go with a different club they were brilliant about it.”

He laughs when it is suggested he obviously didn’t tell them where.

“I think Frankie [Sheahan, his agent] must have said it to them. I was asked not to say anything.

“I tried not to say a word to anyone but to be fair they didn’t ask. They might have had an idea.”

He’s based in Cambridge until mid-June, after which he’ll relocate to Dublin, where he’ll write his dissertation in the evenings and train during the day: all going well, he’ll have MBA in late September.

And then there’s the rugby. “I see everything through a different set of eyes to some extent. I am ready to go full bore at rugby. If everything holds up physically, I will get an opportunity; if I get an opportunity, then hopefully I can take it.”

The rugby reprise promises to be worth watching.